Reunions & Revelations
by oO Tetisheri Oo
Summary: Unexpectedly, old and new friends unite during a journey back to the ancient city of sorcery, where their reward are broken hearts and some secrets' revelation ... Maeve/Sinbad pairing
1. Prologue

**So, as i said before in my profile, this is my very first fiction and if it's been posted here it'll be all thanks to my dear friend "_Tiakisu__"_ for approving and allowing its post, for suggesting and encouraging me to do so, and for helping me a lot and revising it.**

**Really big thanks to you my friend :)**

**And you guys -dear AoS fans- enjoy it ;)**

**Hope you like it.**

**~.~.~.~**

N.B. "_**Reunions & Revelations**"_ is considered as only a part (Part 1) form a multi-part fiction, which means there'd be kinda series of other successive parts of same or other adventure/s...

- One last thing, 'Italics are the characters' thoughts'.

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**~ Prologue ~**

"Abu Ali, you come just in time. Hope you slept well. Now you'll take the night shift with Doubar."

"Aye, captain", replied the young sailor, "Do you want me to take the tiller until he comes?"

"No, just tie those ropes and get them out of the way. Oh, and send Said to call Doubar for his shift."

"No need, little brother, here I'm. You know I always come in time, never being late to my shifts."

At the sight of his brother a grin glimmered in Sinbad's eyes, enlightening his face.

"Aye big brother, you're right about this." Then he addressed the other crew man: "Ok Abu Ali, just tell Said to go have some rest."

"Aye, aye captain"

"I see the weather is good tonight if we ignore this heat", Doubar said as he relieved his brother from the tiller.

"Well, yeah, not bad. This way we may reach Basra in the morning, then we'll deliver our cargo just in time", Sinbad smiled in relief.

"And get our payments just in time", Doubar giggled, "that's good, in this case we may take some rest before sailing again, don't we."

"Yeah we may", Sinbad replied slowly as he leant on the rail, crossing his arms and draping his left leg slightly backwards. After a while he added quietly: "or... we may not." Watching his big brother's confused stare he added: "Abu Salim told me about a merchant of carpets in Basra, his friend. He said he may need a ship to get a cargo from Samarkand and…"

"From Samarkand! Sinbad, but this is a very long journey and we just come from Halab, why on Earth should we do that?"

The captain glared at his brother while replying: "Doubar!… It's for the payment of course. Abu Salim in Halab told me his friend will pay us 100 of golden pieces, may be even more. Fifty for going and the others for delivering the cargo." He smirked as he calmed down; shifting his gaze to the night sky that twinkled with so many pearly stars, "It seems that it's a very precious one, this cargo".

However the first mate continued not seeming to be even listening to his brother: "And in this case we will take a very long shot on land too. It's too far from the last harbor we can find in our way and there is no direct way by sea to reach it, I think."

"Aye, we can't reach it with the Nomad, but... don't you see,, the payment is worth it."

Doubar just groaned in disagreement which made Sinbad sigh. "Ok, I still didn't decide it yet. I know it's a very long travel and…"

"And we are all very **exhausted**!"

At this Sinbad rolled his eyes. "Well, take it easy big brother. I just said we **may** accept it, I didn't say we**'ll** **go** for sure." Then he tried to change the subject: "And actually I was thinking to pay our old friends in Basra a visit."

"You mean Omar? Well, that's normal. We should do it anyway; he's the Imir of Basra."

"And Caipra. Last times we were in Basra we didn't ask about her. I have to admit it's kind of hard to pay her a visit after such long time of not showing up."

Doubar knew instantly what his brother meant exactly, so he replied quickly: "No, I don't think so." Then trying to comfort his brother he reasoned: "You know, Caipra is a very wise lady, she'll consider it. Not to mention that she is a sorceress which means she is very busy herself and has a lot to do instead of thinking of our late visit."

Sinbad kept silent this time, keeping his lost stare into the dark sky. Seeing this, Doubar searched for a distraction. Then he noticed something. He cleared his throat and remarked kindly: "But may I ask why this sudden visit? I mean, do I miss out on something?"

"_Oh, no_" Sinbad suddenly felt uncomfortable but tried to hide his tenseness as he gulped. "Of course not, it's just that I missed this old sorceress, you know." He shifted a little while his blue eyes scanned around in search for a rescue. Doubar stared at his brother in a way that told he didn't believe it.

The latter then added quickly: "And of course, I realized recently that Bryn didn't meet her before. As you said already Caipra is a very powerful sorceress, so I thought she may be able to help Bryn to regain some or any of her lost memory…. That's all." He looked at Doubar innocently.

"Oh, I see now. That's true indeed; she may be able to do it. How comes that we didn't think of that before?"

Sinbad shook his head, smiling inwardly in relief that his brother let it go this time.

"But do you think Bryn will accept it?", the first mate went again, "I mean you didn't tell her about Caipra, did you. She knows nothing about her and she may feel uneasy while dealing with her, or she may not trust her enough to let her search in her memories."

Sinbad grinned in confidence: "Don't worry about that big brother. It is true Bryn still doesn't know about Caipra but you shouldn't worry about her. She sees inside people and feels them more than any of us; she even sometimes can read their minds." He giggled as the memory of Bryn getting inside Shiana's mind to find the map invaded him; he remembered her teasing him afterward by declaring that he had no chance to keep a secret away from her.

"_Sweet memories, aren't they. Those, one shares with his family"_ he thought.

"I'm sure she'll feel Caipra's aura and will know that she is a good sorceress. Actually I expect she'll like her at first sight."

"Now you are scaring me, Sinbad. You sound like Bryn!" _"… and Maeve" _he whispered the last words in his mind.

Sinbad raised his eyebrow, "Really?", then winked with his usual half smile. "That is the price of having a witch in the crew you captain."

Doubar just laughed out loud in approval.

Finally Sinbad said: "I should go now or you'll be forced to help me to my cabin, as I feel like I'll fall on the ground at any moment."

"Aye, you should go now and get some sleep. You look very tired. I'll tell Rongar to wake you up in the morning during his shift."

"Alright, if you need anything, Abu Ali is awake for your help."

"Great", Doubar smiled, "Some company will make the time pass quickly."

His little brother just smiled too. "Good night, big brother."

"Good night, Sinbad."

Sinbad moved towards the galley while his smile disappeared without his brother noticing it. He just hoped inside him that he **could** get some sleep this time. Could he?


	2. Ch 1 Unwelcome Adventure

**My sincere apologies -dear readers- for taking that long to update, i'm so sorry. **Life had been little tough with me since then! with exams, and certain writing/inspiration block... so sorry. I hope this chapter would make it up to you, and you can really enjoy it :)

**I have few things to mention before leaving you with the coming adventure:**

**- **First of all, **MY HUGE THANKS** to every one who took a look to my simple work, and ** SPECIAL GREAT THANKS for the nicest readers ever** who favorite, followed and of course reviewed the fiction, really guys that was so sweet from you and it means A LOT to me. Seriously you made my day, and by your words and actions you truly helped me through the block i faced.

So special thanks for **_ KM Rune,_ _TiaKisu, Anime Princess, MJDai, Lil Sweet Thing, WEKA, SamSoma Hak, _**

**_~.~.~_**

**_- ***_I feel honored to say that the very first idea of this chapter invaded me while watching one of my top favorite fan-video of_ WildYennifer _as this great vid really inspired credit for inspiration goes to the _*In Search of Maeve- Beyond the invisible*_**

**thus i'll recommend to watch the amazing vid to live in the real feeling of the adventure atmosphere i felt ;)**

**check on the link of the fan-video on my profile,**

**~.~.~**

- Secondly, i'm so sorry the chapter this time is **VERY LONG** :/ i couldn't help it as it can't be divided. You will discover it while reading. But as far as i know this won't repeated again.

- Then, you'll find here many mistakes! i'm so sorry as it's not revised yet. Forgive me! But i'll try soon to edit it to the revised copy!

- Finally, Italics here doesn't mean the character's thoughts, as most of the chapter belongs to only one character. Thus the Italics here means either different character's quotes or something important for the continuation of the coming adventures.

**~.~.~**

Now, i hope you really enjoy this chap, and please don't forget to review as it'll be the fuel for my inspiration!

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**~Unwelcome Adventure~ **

On his way to his cabin, Sinbad found the galley totally empty as everyone was supposed to be sleeping by now; however he couldn't hear any snore coming from different cabins of the crew members. Oddly, the deep silence of the night was the dominant now on Nomad, only interrupted by sounds of the sails crushed by the hot air and the waves hitting Nomad; but he inferred that perhaps it was the heat that disturbed his crew's slumber. As he passed by the cabin shared by the young scientist and his silent mate he could see the candle light still radiating from the corner of the door frame. That meant that Firouz was working on new creation, he knew his friend was interested the last couple of days in improving one of his old inventions. If his mind wasn't tricking him it should be the one he gifted to Omar of Basra two years ago, that weird stuff that had something to do with generating wind! It was the same one they used to help the Ronin vanquishing Kata.

With a tired smile playing on his face Sinbad sighed as he opened his cabin door, realizing that even this unsupportable heat was inspiring the young inventor. Once he locked the door behind him carefully the smile and the funny thoughts evaporated from his mind right away, he was back now to re-live his nightmare again and suffer its torture as he did with each attempt to sleep. Well, he couldn't just call it a mere dream, at least for the real pain in his soul and heart he was feeling every time he tried to close his eyes and surrender to the slumber and that may endured even after his wake. The peculiar thing here was his complete loss of its very memory, not a single detail he could remember from it but some feelings. The odder was within every morning he reopened his eyes he found himself hardly taking his breath as if he had been in a marathon, fatigued as if he never slept the night before moreover as if he spent all of it running.

This nightmare made great success in forbidding his body from rest for almost a couple of weeks now, as since he got it for the first time he never knew a way to proper stupor nor felt a real blissful rest and his corpus was yelling every moment by then to get some tranquility.

And what worsen it his certitude that the whole matter was related somehow to … Maeve! ... His Maeve, damn it! How it hurts to just spell the name in his mind! His lost Celtic dream …

He couldn't put his hand on the link between his mysterious dream and his red-head sorceress but he was getting that weird feeling it was about her, that she was in danger and in need of his help. The thought it might be true just ignited his fear and made his pain intolerable being far from her and unable to rescue her, defend her from whatever hazard she might be in. Of course he had faith in his master's words that informed him she was safe with the old wizard, but he couldn't help his rushing horror emotions and impulsive panic at the mere thought of the probability of her being in risk. At that his feelings got control over his will and his mind surrendered to his emotions leaving behind any way of reasoning; he couldn't bear this thought, simply couldn't, even if it was unreal. And that was exactly what happened when Scratch had tricked him that he got her; although Sinbad was certain that she was with Dimdim and that it could be a trap created by the delusion demon to capture his soul, he endangered himself and his crew to kill any doubt that his sorceress might be in the goat-like demon's grip giving the priority to his emotions over his reasoning.

As he lied now on his bed, Sinbad closed his eyes with a sigh as he rubbed his face with both hands in attempt to expel the bitter memory that cost him the life of a dear new friend, the one whom he met only then but affected him deeply during their short meeting; the one who sacrificed herself willingly first to help him searching for his lost love and then to save his life and his crew. As he kept his eyes closed, his mind now rushed back to the thought of his nightmare to escape this bitterness. He was amazed why his feeling that Maeve needed his help never left him since the dream started its unwelcomed visits, even during his wake time. And why he got the deep feeling that he knew the way to help her and to reach her whilst in verity he didn't, at least not consciously.

Many question marks that he had no answers and kept him confused and he knew if he stayed in this situation any longer they would lead him to insanity. Actually that was the real reason for his urgent desire to see Caipra; hopefully the old woman might have some answers or at least some explanation to his bewilderment when he couldn't even confess the truth to any of his crew. How could he explain something that he already had no idea about and couldn't express it? And if he mentioned his feelings about Maeve nobody would believe him but they would return it to his yearning to her, and neither would they believe the dream virtual effects on him. Who would believe it? Firouz the physician who was always looking for scientific explanation for every incident around him, or Doubar who never believed in this Mumbo-Jumbo; even Rongar wouldn't have much different opinion in spite of believing him. All of them would agree on the cause being his overloading himself by his duties as captain as well as his silent solicitude to the lass that he didn't want to share with anyone.

The only one who could understand him closely and believe him was Bryn, but she still had no idea about the real nature of the feelings he kept for the Celtic sorceress. He never talked to her about Maeve, never … while she should be aware of it before he could share his secret with her. But truth to be said, he didn't really feel like talking openly with anyone about his true feelings towards Maeve nor sharing his current ones of missing her, not even with his brother so how about sharing them with Bryn? Not that he didn't trust the brunette or having faith in her judgment, he even felt at ease being with her. Something about this brunette made him feeling much easier, calmed him down and made him confide in her. A smile shadow danced on his lips "This amazing young witch!"

The point is he naturally never felt easy to admit his passion to anyone. May be a part of his pride prevented him from doing it by causing him to sense … some weakness. And he refused to appear weak, not him … after all, he is the Captain. That was why he pretended he didn't care about losing _her_ while he was dying every day he opened his eyes just to realize his life without her. Every time he looked to the rails and not finding her leaning on it while pondering the convergence of the billow with the horizon, not studying one of her magic books on deck as the wind breeze tickled her flaming hair, not practicing new spells in the galley or her cabin causing weird phenomena around and inside Nomad, not sharing their meals on the same table in front of each other and both of them trying to hide their mutual glances, …

All at once some familiar voice interfered with his thoughts, he recognized it was Mala "_Sometimes when we lose someone we love we pretend not to hurt, we pretend we're too tough to care, to eventually we forget we're pretending._"

How much her words were so real, he couldn't say. The blue lady touched his soul and read his wounded heart. He couldn't tell why … why her advice now was pumping in his mind "_Remember… heart, head and then the sword_."

Weird …... very weird

Why exactly … he … rem…

o~o~O~o~o

Suddenly Sinbad realized he was holding the tiller! What happened? Why was he mind-absent in such circumstances? The dark night was sparkling with fulgurites and the thunder was fighting the waves sounds as they were bluntly crushing on the ship. The young captain made hard effort to open his eyes in the middle of the hoarse rain to see his crew. Unfortunately he couldn't recognize any of his crew as all he could see was shadows of a man or two. The storm was terrifying and the ship now was reeling as its body started to be shaky; he realized he had no hope to survive such unusual storm and violence that he never experienced before. The ship itself wouldn't make it out, actually no ship could. He tried to shout out for anyone who could hear him to get the sails bound in spite of being sure that nobody could hear him in this nature's stormy symphony … or perhaps there was nobody left onboard!

He quickly looked around him again to search those silhouettes he saw few moments ago, only to widen his eyes in horrible shock and disbelief. His mouth opened widely in true deep terror as his gaze fell on the incredible sight in front of him. Back there in the mad sea was the highest and the most enormous billow he even couldn't imagine, the ship was like a tiny dot if compared to it. It was like the whole ocean had decided all of a sudden to stand up and was preparing himself to jump back to where it belonged, devouring anything in his way and forming a giant watery wall that oddly reminded him of the invisible wall of the Vorgon, at least both were close in height!

Everything happened quickly before he got time to blink, and in the next second he was in depth of the ocean with the whole inverted ship that actually turned into pieces. And he only felt … so much things that his mind didn't have time to analyze, may be pain, may be coldness …. But the undeniable thing was … the absolute blackness.

He opened his eyes to get inside coarse rain drops making his blurred vision worse.

"Just perfect!" he cursed inwardly while he started to resist the unmerciful ache in his body to get up and have a look around. Finding himself on shore he noticed that it was morning as some faint light was trying to make its way in timidity through the dark clouds that covered completely the sky, without those light shadows the sailor would believe it was night. It seemed that the storm hadn't calm down yet as the rain was massively hard and both the thunder and the fulgurites didn't stop either. The tide was so high as well. Sinbad perceived it'd be safer if he headed deeper inside the island he was on its shore now. He glanced behind him to spot a forest not so far from him, he might find some shelter.

As he made his way to it running he tried to remember how he ended up in this sticky situation anyway; then the answer showed itself inside him … it's Maeve! He was in his way to save her, he knew she was in danger and needed his help. He also knew the way to reach her, it's true that he couldn't memorize the details but he just had to follow his instincts and he still had a chance to rescue her as he survived the ship crushing; however he couldn't figure out how this could have taken place.

As he arrived at the threshold of the wood borders, he leant on the nearest tree trunk trying to take his breath. It was the moment that his mind naturally realized how much his clothes were wet and he - afraid of catching some serious disease- felt the urgency to find some shelter that enabled him to get them dried. But also he had to hurry up as that peril confronting Maeve wouldn't wait for him to get rest. He couldn't explain how he was sensing her need for him, it was like her scent calling his name and it was only his heart who could hear this call! It was weird and indescribable but all he could get from it that he had to respond to the call immediately without any delay.

He gazed down to check on his clothes and how bad they were, if he could endure it temporarily till he could find her. And from the beginning of the adventure till this moment, only then he discovered strangely that he was wearing his old outfit! He starred in disbelief to his large blue trousers, vest and the wide white shirt as his hands chook his forehead only to find his tied red band keeping his short hair from annoying him and reaching his shaved face. It was then when he realized … it wasn't reality but … **his nightmare**!

Sinbad groaned in annoyance and hit the tree trunk with his fist. He had enough with that seriously, and couldn't bear it anymore. Raising his eyes upward in attempt to reach the sky view while he was praying to Allah to have mercy on him from this torment, his gaze caught the sight of an odd thing hanging between some of the highest branches of a nearby tree. His sense perceived it was a sign of something that he couldn't figure out; perhaps for some sort of native tribe. "Great ….. That is exactly what I need right now!" By his usual humor tone his mind wondered how many times he exactly cursed the situation he was in before; a shiver ran through his body as his wonder shifted to how many times he would. He shook his head to dismiss such thoughts, instead he should focus on this sign and the probable danger he might be in and how to escape it to reach Maeve in time.

Back to the sign, Sinbad really felt uneasy towards it, there was some darkness invading his senses whenever his gaze fell on it. However the sign was simple, dried branches arranged together forming an imperfect circle that framed what was like a bone-made fork shape with only two spines, the later extended outward to form two curved horns. What really Sinbad disliked about it was the blood that was covering most of the sign .… dry blood giving it unpleasant deep crimson red color!

Then all of sudden while he was losing his thoughts in this awful thing he startled by immense heinous sound of a war-bugle. He couldn't detect its source exactly but he expected from the ruffian tone how could be the ones who were blowing in it. Thus he unsheathed his sword spontaneously and looked around in readiness not knowing what direction he should take to hide from the natives as the horn seemed to be coming from everywhere.

Some green glitter then caught his eyes, coming from … his rainbow bracelet! So he directed all his attention to it as he figured out the simultaneous increasing urge of retaking his way to Maeve. As he was realizing the cause of this sparkle he noticed it changed its rhythm giving twinkles, and as he moved his hand with the shimmered bracelet those twinkles changed their intensity. "**Yes!**" the sailor stated in victory, now it was obvious; the bracelet would lead him to Maeve as when he was in the right way the glimmers kept intense but as he started to deviate from it they'd faint.

By this he started to take his road guided by his bracelet that was leading him deeper in the forest. He ran through the heavy rain, broken branches and the aired roots to catch his only chance to save his love as he felt there wasn't much time left. After a while he sensed the rain drops becoming more and more … dense, its sound was kind of … suppressed and the view in front of him took a red shadow! He stopped for a moment only to get a chill in his spine as he recognized the reason; the rain wasn't watery drops anymore, it was … bloody! Drops of blood were falling from sky onto land.

Now this became really intolerable, seriously he didn't like how this dream was progressing to. But no, he wouldn't let anything prevent him from rescuing _his Celtic dream_. Anything, even if it was raining stones he wouldn't. By this he began his way drawn by his heart not paying any attention to the obstacles he was meeting, huge trunk fallen on ground or these spiky little twigs that were cutting his skin, legs and arms. Ignoring the pain coming from his bleeding wounds and scratches, and his exhausted feet from his excessive running he started to feel the numbness slowly invading his legs; however he focused on his way and didn't slow down his pace. When all at once the whole storm and rain ceased and the sun light radiated everywhere making its way through the nested boughs.

He stopped abruptly in wonder to this unreasonable sudden change. The bleeding sky now was clearer and the sun rays became stronger. Sinbad sighed in discomfort as he saw the dry land under his feet. There was no sign of the storm as it never existed, the blood and water that had formed ponds now completely vanished and his clothes were totally dry as well. The young captain puffed raising his brows as his eyes were sparkling in fury scanning the surrounding, only to discover that the previous bloody ponds and mud were now replaced by a lot of scattered clothes. But he didn't feel easy at their sight, and then he realized they all were covered by blood patches everywhere. He winced "By the name of Allah!" he knew that it wasn't innocent and peaceful sunny scene as it looked like. His alert sense had just reached its maximum now; "It seems there was some massacre here" he thought. The sight was so nefarious but brushed him with some familiarity.

"Odd!" As answer struck him, Sinbad widened his eyes in horror while his gaze lied on a familiar striped shirt. At first the shock paralyzed his tongue but when he started to recover still having some big heart-break he was allowed to whisper "Doubar!"

Rushing to where the shirt was he picked it up and found that it wasn't free of the damage, it was torn and had a big macula of blood on it …. his brother's blood.

"**No** … this is unreal. It's only a nightmare, one big awful nightmare" he shouted then added in firmness "Doubar is alright, sound and safe. I know it." His voice lowered while his mind tried to overcome the roughness of his heavy heart beats and the dark shadow that grasped on his spirit. And as he expected his gaze caught Firouz' sac, Bryn's yellow dress and Rongar's leather shirt; all were torn and stained with blood.

Sinbad threw the fake shirt of Doubar in disgust resisting his emesis. In spite of knowing well it's all spurious he couldn't bear the thought of losing any of them, losing his family, it was horrible. The terrible sound of the bugle started again and startled him … again. But this time it was followed by a vibration that Sinbad recognized it was caused by troops…

Troops! "Arrgh, just perfect!" he surveyed the surrounding to find any escape from it as he swore under his breath… and further cursed these pernicious situations, one after the other. And there he noticed distant trees with aerial roots; he ran to them and grabbed one of these rope-like roots then climbed it until reaching a large branch at safe height.

At the same moment the savage troops appeared. Sinbad was surprised discovering that they were wild bears but they were kind of giant bears with … horns! The captain couldn't remember any bear with horns, they never possess horns. He didn't know why he remembered the Norsemen then, perhaps due to the horn thing; and the horny helmet Eyolf gave to … Maeve! He forgot about her, how could he?! And how was he supposed to reach her in time while he was hiding from those beasts. Time was really running out of his grip. He frowned as a special sight interrupted his wondering thoughts, a sight of the hugest bear among the whole troops. He was double the size of any of the others; moreover his helm carried the largest ramified and serpentine horns. The eruptive troops diverged instantly to form enough space for him while running and it wasn't hard for the captain to sense his importance and to realize he was their leader.

He waited until they had completely gone away so he could return down on land, but even before moving he felt the world was spinning around him. To his surprise he found the large bough he was leaning on moving by itself and progressively was increasing its speed. He hung on it with both his hands as it was too high to jump on land now. But the tree became crazy then and was moving with ferocity as it was waving and flagging him until finally he ended up being thrown on land. He groaned in pain as every muscle and bone in his body was screaming from the ache.

This was too much for him now, too much. Fortunately his ears caught the furious swish of the leaves and branches that didn't stop yet, as his mind warned him he jumped from the ground to glance upward only to find an angry and so alive tree shifting all her giant crumples now in real fierceness to crush him where he was standing. He asked himself what he did to upset it to that limit, but as the question popped in his head he made sure to run with all his speed to get out of its blow that could kill him instantly. As he was running away he heard the big stroke of the enormous mad tree to the ground in the exact area he was laying on seconds ago; and when he gained a good distance away from it he paused to take his breath.

In this moment he discovered that it wasn't the same forest he was in a while ago where the scenery had totally changed and was even more wondrous. Sinbad turned around to get better view of the surrounding; there was no blood, no torn clothes … no more odor of death. Instead of them there were … books!.. scattered everywhere on ground! As the wind played with books pages and turned them gently the sailor turned his gaze upwards to get the strangest sight ever.

The trees! They were holding books on and between their branches, all the trees. If his eyes weren't tricking him he would say it's a GREAT library where thousands of books were scattered on floor and others being hanging on trees. But it was a dream where anything was possible.

"_A dream but not a dream_" a thought that whispered in his mind, he agreed with it. Yeah, every time he woke up he felt that this undesirable adventure was real, that he really visited those odd lands and witnessed those weird events even though he wasn't remembering them. But every morning he suffered from tiredness and exhaustion from the running and jumping everywhere; even during the dream itself it felt so real, everything around him: the blood, the storm, the death odor …

He was wandering now calmly through the wood trying not to disturb any of the trees again, pacing between the books on the land when he felt suddenly thirsty. And as if his dream was reading his thoughts the side of his eyes glimpsed it from a distance. There at his right side a beautiful lake attracted his gaze as its shimmering crystalic water of unusual firouzi color was hugging the sun light in a breath taking view, producing some magnificent turquoise sparkles at the sites where the sun rays touched its surface. Sinbad gasped, it was the most beautiful sight he ever saw, aside –of course- of that of Maeve's red hair flying at the breeze's tickles of the sunset wind, giving her some red framed glow that perfectly melted with the light crimson radiance of the last sun rays farewell while touching it.

The captain headed to the lake in intention to admire its sight closer and to satisfy his thirst. He bent and reached the water by his right hand taking a nip of it then bent further to drink, but as his lips touched his palm and before reaching the water to drink, the liquid in his hand transformed into … stone!

Surprised he got back and starred to it. It was a little turquoise gemstone that was carved forming a special yet random engraving, but he observed one of the many carving there was taking an S shape with further wavy borders that ended up forming a wavy incomplete circle surrounding it.

Sinbad stared back to the lake only to find the whole water had vanished and was replaced by thousands no, millions of those turquoise gemstones. All of sudden the stone in his hand came alive and jumped back to the lake. Sinbad raise his eyebrow "It seems that everything is coming to life here. Great, so your new plan now is to kill me by thirst!" he exclaimed as in fact he had no idea to whom exactly he was addressing his blame.

He sighed as he started to straight up when suddenly something hit him in his face causing him to tumble on his back to the ground. A flash of déjà vu struck his mind as he recalled his first encounter with Maeve, when Dermot attacked him leading him to lose his balance falling down on his back and as he looked up he got _her _first adorable sight… Sinbad shook his head trying to focus on what hit him now; if he wasn't mistaken his eyes caught some wind stream carrying … leaves! It didn't seem to be so strong to hit him like that! He glanced behind while regaining his posture then his eyes caught a silhouette standing not so far from him. It was a lady-shape figure … actually formed from the same leaves and wind that just had stuck him! His brows rose as he pondered the creature in front of him, the strange greenish blue leaves were arranged perfectly to form the figure essence supported by the wind.

"Hey, my name is Sinbad" he declared hoping that this creature was intending no harm to him as her first action was attacking him. The lady figure responded only by shaking her head in salutation then she raised her whole left arm to point into some direction. Relief overwhelming him, at least there was no more danger, or violence. "Ok, you want me to go there with you. Well, good spirit of tree I'm afraid I've something to do, I mean someone really needs my help…" his bracelet shinning then interrupted him as its glitter indicating the same direction shown by the silhouette. "Okay, … or we may see your problem first.."

Sinbad headed to where the strange tree spirit told him and was followed by her in form of a gentle spiral breeze of air carrying the leaves. The spirit stopped at certain tree, one that Sinbad found very special. The tree was enormous and twitched like wrapped on itself; moreover its leaves were in same shape of those flying with the wind, but all were dark blue in color.

All but only one, Sinbad noticed it in spite of being single and hidden within the big tree but its light firouzi color wasn't dark as the others. The young captain deduced that it was the same tree whose spirit was calling him but he had no clue of the kind of help she needed. In response to his query, the leaves carried by the wind joined the others on the tree changing theirs color to darker then the wind touched the tree gently causing some other leaves to fall down on ground. Sinbad tracked them by his gaze discovering a lot of dried dead leaves lying on ground around the tree, they were black in tint. Then again his eyes caught some glint within those black leaves. He bent to see what was it and for his surprise it was a golden ring … a very FAMILIAR ring decorated by a skull!

"Rumina!" his eyes widen now in realization "Rumina attacked Maeve! I swear by Allah's name if she harmed her in anyway, I'll kill her." His grip tightened on the ring in determination as he frowned and stood up getting ready for further clues that might lead him to his Celtic dream, his blue eyes reflecting anger and fury.

Then without any preliminaries the ground started to shake vigorously again so that he tried hard to keep his balance as the ring dropped from his hand. Eventually he lost it when he oddly felt the ground under his feet not solid anymore but becoming wavy, soft and like … WATER!

Sinbad sensed in shock that he was dragged by the sea that was surrounding him now from everywhere and replace the weird forest scene. He was drowning as the waves were too fierce to fight back his own strength, taking him downwards where he found the stream dragging him deeper into some unknown trend. He tried harder to resist the sea power and swim against it but with no result, lastly he surrendered to the stream feeling something inside him was pushing him to do so. While his lungs were screaming for air, his heart was burning from the urgent sentiment to rescue Maeve that rose considerably now. And when he was about to lose his consciousness a large wave pushed him up to the surface and threw him on shore.

After a while as he stayed still on ground not moving from pain, regaining his consciousness now he opened his eyes with effort just in right time to find out that he wasn't on sand and everywhere was strangely green; no trees but there was green walls that started to move towards him from his both sides to crush him. He jumped up and ran as fast as he could, it needed no magic to realize that the sea behind him had vanished again. He was running with all his remained effort –not only to save himself but to save his love as well- in a challenge against the approaching green walls while deep inside he somehow sensed it was the same way to reach Maeve. It was odd as his instincts told him so yet he felt being dragged to it as well.

Finally he discovered an end to the crushing walls as they were coming now dangerously close to him, thus he doubled his speed so that the numbness started to invade his legs progressively in warning. Fortunately as he reached the boundary he gathered all his last effort to make one final big jump to cut the remaining distance just in time as the two opposite walls met together and completely crushed whatever was between them.

Again Sinbad was forced to lie down as he collapsed on ground taking his breath and resting his ached legs and body. He sighed in wonder how he just made it in time and was saved from such a close trap. The sailor looked around to check if there was any other trap waiting for him but he found only peace. After allowing his body to get his rest he focused now to discover the reason of the tranquility he felt.

There, he was lying in a valley … actually if he was in better mood he would describe it as the biggest and the most magnificent orchard … like a piece of heaven! A real meadow with bright and vivid colors everywhere and amazing scent that saturated his soul. It took him a while to catch the origin of all this beauty … FLOWERS! There were flowers everywhere, at every sight; flowers of every kind, color and odor.

It was right, just like a real paradise! Their charming nectar was filling his breaths and caused him to refresh, and as joy filled his spirit now he decided to continue his way to his aim. So he leant with both hands on the ground to get up to just notice a large carving on the mud, in fact it was a large …. FOOTPRINT! And obviously it was neither of human nor of a simple beast, mostly it was of a … big monster.

Sinbad gulped, his gaze scanned the surrounding as he got up quickly and unsheathed his sword again. He started to walk carefully now with his bracelet guiding his way in vigilance, he didn't want to be startled by a sudden attack. But he found nothing, no monster no beast, all he spotted was more beautiful flowers by every step and at every sight.

Actually he began to doubt his eyes, was it really a footprint belonging to monster? May be he was hallucinating from the exhaustion he was suffering and the effort he made during this … awful dream. How could a monster been kept in such a wonderful paradise or living among such beauty and delicateness? This wasn't making any sense. By this he lost most of his wariness while enjoying this charm.

He was wandering for a long time by now when his bracelet increased its brightness suddenly stopping him. He raised his eyes expecting to find Maeve finally or at least some magical gate that might lead to the realm she was in. but his gaze had fallen on the greatest beauty ever. His eyes widen as he gasped, this couldn't be real … it's just impossible; how much beauty … he couldn't tell. There, in front of him lied the most magnificent sight …. A black rose! A real black rose that was full blooming, brightening shone there on top of the hill. _Her_ sight just caused passionate feeling of grace and pleasure. "Could that be real?!" he wondered.

As a voice whispered inside his heart telling him he had to get _her_ in order to save Maeve, he couldn't figure out what possible relation linked the two beauties but he just responded to it having faith in his bracelet power that enhanced him too. Surrendering to his own desire to touch _her_ as well he advanced towards _her_ carefully, fearing _she_ could be an illusion too. He noticed beside _her_ a decorated bed but he didn't care, he kept approaching _her_ while his mind was whispering to him "_She_ must be the queen here and all the rest of flowers are her maidservants."

When he reached her finally he stayed still silently, starring to her charm and hesitating from touching her. When eventually he took decision to try, only a trial to sense her delicate shinny black petals that were luring him, he then realized the growing shadow covering him from behind his back and his ears caught a terrifying groan that gave a shiver to his spine, it was too close, too high.

He was turning around to face him as he glanced to his hand carrying his sword only to be shocked that his scimitar had disappeared. Sinbad starred in horror then raised his gaze to the monster but didn't even have time for his mind to work, or to discover what the monster was like, as in the next second the monster –with another awful groan- attacked him … and … got him ….

o~o~O~o~o

Sinbad's eyes burst open as he was breathing hardly only to meet darkness everywhere. Was he dead?!

The monster's scream still echoed in his ears, but now it was mixed somehow with … a knock … hard knock.

"Captain Sinbad, come on captain wake up."

Sinbad realized the voice was too familiar … By name of Allah; he woke up from his nightmare! And this was Amin's voice calling him. He then glanced around him, it was his cabin and he was lying down on his back drowning in sweat on his bed. He sighed and closed his eyes once more to overcome the shock trying to relax.

"Thanks Allah." his mind whispered.

"Captain, are you there? Are you ok?"

Sinbad remembered that Amin was still at the door waiting for an answer. "A … Aye" he coughed as his voice still husky trying to be normal, "Aye Amin, what do you want?"

"Captain, it's Rongar who sent me to wake you up. He said that is your wish. Are you ok captain? Do you …"

"It's ok Amin, I'm fine" the young blue eyed sailor interrupted him, "Thanks, I'm awaken now. You can go."

"… Aye captain, if you want anything I'm here."

"Thanks Amin." Sinbad whispered as he listened to his young crew member's steps walking away.

Now as his full consciousness and composure had been restored, he let his body to absolute relaxation from such effort he seemed that he did. This nightmare again … arrrgh! When will it cease from invading him?

And again he wasn't remembering any of its details, but just witnessed its impact on his body … this terrible exhaustion. Yet he still knew it was somehow related to Maeve and that she was in some trouble needing his help. But also he realized that he was so lucky that Amin woke him up in that exact moment, as it seemed he was facing … a kind of deadly fate … he shivered at this thought.

Yes he was sure he witnessed his death in the last moments of his dream. A terrible death, but again he couldn't recall how this had happened and actually he absolutely had no intention to remember.


	3. Ch 2 Troubled Morning

Before leaving you with the new chapter, i want to welcome my awesome readers :)

Special thanks for _**OiseauLune -Moon Bird, nonni88 **_(i hope you guys will enjoy the update), and for my lovely reviewers: _**TiaKisu, Anime Princess, MJDai;**_

and welcome _**loney, Michodell & Misha. **_**:)**

Can't tell you how you all brighten my day and made me smile,

Now, if you excuse me i left a little note in the tail of this chapter, hope you don't forget to take a look, and i'm uploading another longer but **VERY IMPORTANT** one instead of the next chapter as Author' Note ,, so please take a look on the latter which will be uploaded as chapter 4,, And i'm seriously interested in your feedback about this note.

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**~Troubled Morning~**

Sinbad winced once he stepped on deck from the sudden exposure to the strong sun rays. He cursed himself inwardly that he didn't expect how strong it would be especially when coming out from dark galley. He instantly covered his forehead with his hand in a way to hide his eyes, moving towards the tiller while he let the door to self shut.

Rongar looked up when he heard the door closure, and smiled warmly at the sight of his captain.

"Morning, Rongar." Sinbad relieved as he gave his back to the sun.

The moor nodded with a smile.

"Long shift, huh? Do you want to take some rest?"

Rongar shook his head closing his eyes to say no, then he made some signs with his right hand while his left still holding the tiller steadily.

Sinbad raised his eyebrows "Oh yeah, I forgot. Your shift is partially at night and is completed in the morning. But I still can relieve you for a while, my friend."

Rongar shook his head again and put his right hand on his chest while smiling. It was his way to express his gratitude.

"Well, as you like. Anyway, you sent Amin to wake me up, thank you" Sinbad smiled in appreciation _"And you have no idea how it was the right time"_ he added in his mind.

At this moment, Firouz approached his friends smiling "Morning guys, it's very hot today. Oh Sinbad, by the way it's only a couple of hours to reach Basra."

"Great, our timing is just perfect this time." Sinbad smiled

"You mean in delivering the cargo? Aye, indeed. The weather helped us a lot this time; it's too hot but still we have this hot wind filling the sails enough to have smooth sailing. I think we were lucky."

"Agree with you." replied the captain as he nodded his head.

"By the way captain, what exactly is your plan after delivering this cargo? I mean what will we do next?"

Sinbad opened his mouth to reply just to be interrupted by the answer. "Don't start it Firouz. Don't ask him that." They turned around to only meet an obviously annoyed Doubar and a warmly smiling Bryn with Dermott perching on her left arm as usual.

"Good morning guys." Bryn's smile enlarged friendly.

After they replied her Firouz couldn't keep his curiosity "What did you mean Doubar?"

"Our captain is seriously thinking about leaving Basra once we deliver our current cargo, just to get another one from… SAMARKAND back to Basra."

Sinbad rolled his eyes, while Dermott left Bryn's arm to stretch his wings in the sky. Bryn just followed him with her eyes.

"Samarkand! Really Sinbad, are we going there? That is….. AMAZING. I wanted to visit it long time ago; it was my dream since I was a kid. Fantastic!"

"Firouz!" Doubar stared at him in disbelief, while both Sinbad and Rongar exchanged the gazes; and a ghost of smile appeared in Rongar's eyes while raising his eyebrow, which made Sinbad fought his own smile from showing up.

"No Doubar, you don't understand. Samarkand is well known by its great and special architecture arts, it's one of the most remarkable architecture centers in the world,,, there you'll find the Registan, one of the most relevant examples of the Arabian architecture. It consists of three separate buildings: Madrasa of Ulugh Beg, Sher-Dor Madrasah that is called Lions Gate, and Tilya-Kori Madrasah as well as Shah-i-Zinda necropolis and more,,, not to mention that it's considered one of the amazing hubs for scholarly study as well, that's why I wanted to visit it in the first place but never had a chance,, also Samarkand is well known by carpet trading. Point of fact its name is derived from the Old Persian _asmara_ that means stone... or rock, and Sogdian _kand_ meaning town. And after Alexander the Great conquered it the Greeks named it Maracanda, as …"

"Firouz, Stop! I have no intention to know anything about Samarkand history or its geography, nor am I interested in your dreams."

The scientist shook his head in disbelief and sighed,, but soon enough he regained excitation as he directed his attention to his captain again: "But Sinbad, that means that we'll take the Silk Road, I guess."

"I think so." Sinbad nodded

"Perfect, the Silk Road is in fact a trade route made by a network linking many trade routes across the world, and links China to the Western trade world. So many traders used it and still use it like the Indian, the Sogdian traders, as well as the Arabian and Persian traders. It still is an essential effective factor in the development of different civilizations like China, India, Persia, Arabia and others, because it wasn't only the goods that had been traded but also knowledge, sciences and philosophy, and also sometimes diseases like Black Death. Point of fact it's got its name from the famous profitable Chinese silk trade along it and …"

"FIROUZ, enough NOW." Doubar shouted. This time neither Sinbad nor Rongar could keep it anymore, they simply burst in laughter. Sinbad looked to Bryn only to be surprised by her faint smile. That was unusual, he expected her to share their laugh as she did usually but she didn't this time. She seemed to be worried… or thoughtful.

"Is it only me who is complaining here? We are too exhausted from the travel from Halab to here. We need at least some rest before making such a long journey."

"Well, I agree with you Doubar. No one can deny this journey being so exhausting, we all are tired and need some rest. But in the same time you can't blame me for it. Look at yourself big brother, you look very tired yet you wake up so early after a long night shift. Why didn't you let your body get some rest?"

"Oh, now are you blaming me little brother? Well, I couldn't get any sleep in this horrible weather. I nearly got the feeling that I was boiling last night, my blood almost popped out of my veins. Now how am I supposed to sleep? So don't anyone dare and blame me."

"Well, I can blame you Doubar." Firouz started only to get a killing stare from the first mate, so he quickly added "I mean if you only give yourself a chance to try my relaxation tub for only fifteen minutes before going to bed, then you could have slept very well."

"Now, you stop babbling about your weird inventions, Firouz. I'm really not in the mood for hearing about any of them, ESPECIALLY NOW. And don't BLAME ME; after all you aren't the one who spent the whole night holding the tiller."

"Ok, come on guys, take it easy." Sinbad intervened quickly as he realized where this conversation is seriously heading now; his brother seemed to be seriously out of mood this morning. This only proved how bad his night was, but obviously Firouz wouldn't understand it when you start to blame him. "I know this hot weather has really bad effect on all of us, but it's only an hour and we'll reach the port. Then you will be able to get the kind of relaxation you seek for, once we head to the tavern…"

"Or may Omar will offer us the hospitality, at least to spend the night at his palace." added Doubar hopefully.

"Don't raise your hopes Doubar, we still don't know if he is already there." As he replied Sinbad looked at Bryn who seemed not even listening to any of their conversation. _"It looks like it is not only Doubar who is not in the mood this morning."_ He thought. "Bryn, what is it? Are you ok?"

"Huh?! Oh… yeah, sure. Err … nothing."

"No, really. There is something bothering you, what is it?"

"Oh, no. Now don't start it again, Bryn."

Bryn frowned a little as she tried to focus more on this discussion. She looked questioningly at Doubar "What do you mean?"

"I mean, you know these 'bad-feeling-about-this-place_'_ and 'feeling-evil-presence_'_ things. Please Bryn, I just want to enjoy being on land for once without any trouble."

Bryn smiled absently "Don't worry Doubar; it's none of those two."

Sinbad felt her uneasiness now and doubted that she wanted to talk in front of everyone. "Well, why don't you guys get back to work?" he said "Firouz, Doubar go check on the cargo and get the ship ready for entering the port. Rongar if your shift is over, go and get some rest before reaching Basra. I'll need you there. Don't worry I'll take the tiller."

"Aye, aye captain."

Once everyone went to their duties, Sinbad talked to Bryn in lower voice now "Bryn wait, let's talk."

"Talk about what?"

"I want to tell you we'll pay a visit to an old friend of ours in Basra. In fact I want you –especially you- to meet her; however you still don't know her till now."

"Why? Why me? And who is she?"

"She is an old wise woman, a sorceress with great knowledge. Her name is Caipra and she is Dim-Dim's wife."

"That means she is very trustful." Bryn smiled "Well, sure I'm so interested to meet her. She may tell me how I can control my powers." She added hopefully.

"That wasn't the only reason I was thinking about. Actually I thought lately why we won't try to ask her if she can help you restore your memory, of course if you don't mind."

"Oh, can she do that?! Of course, how can I mind Sinbad; that sounds great indeed."

"You don't seem to be happy as your words show it."

"No, I'm really excited about this. It's just… I don't want to be very hopeful, let's ask her first if she can do it."

"Sure." He replied quietly, then added in a caring tone "But is that all? Bryn you're not even listening to our talk. I know you very well now, and I know when you're worried. Now tell me what is it?"

She sighed "It's weird."

"Try me." He smiled to her in encouragement.

"Well, in that case… it's just … well, it's hard to explain it but I feel like something bad had happened, ... Or will happen. I'm not sure."

"So Doubar was right." Sinbad tried to tease her.

"No, it's not like that" Bryn tried to focus "It's nothing bad about Basra or the people there. I mean nothing will happen to all of them at least, I think it's only one person." She waited for a while before completing "Like someone is in trouble and needs help."

At that moment Sinbad blinked as his face turned stern and pale.

"Anyway, it is a faint feeling. I can't detect its source exactly." Bryn added without noticing Sinbad's sudden change. "May be it's just me. You said it yourself; hot weather affected all of us badly." She waited for a moment then turned her gaze to the sky, her eyes searching in obvious worry "Or may be it's just Dermott."

The young captain restored his mood when caught her last comment. He gulped and asked in frown "What about him?"

"Err, nothing really important. But I just don't like it when he leaves us and reaches to a place before us like that."

"You mean he precedes us to Basra? Why?"

"Seriously I don't know the real reason behind this, he never tells me. But it's his habit; every time we come to Basra he precedes us there." She looked around nervously.

Sinbad thought about it. "You never told me about that before."

"You didn't ask, besides Basra is a familiar city to us and safe place as well. I mean crowded and people there are familiar too. Even if sometimes they don't look so friendly –like the last time- but that was occasional and still there is no danger for him."

"If so, why are you worried about him?" Sinbad smiled mischievously "Bryn, are you jealous?" he asked in a fake innocence.

"What! Jealous?! Me? Are you kidding Sinbad? Why would I ever be like that? Of course not." She shrugged her shoulders looking to the other side.

A familiarly wave hit the captain for a second, but he drew it aside as he focused on his friend now.

"Well, I didn't mean** _real jealousy_**. But look at yourself, I mean you don't want him to go anywhere without you being with him."

"And why don't you call it '**_being protective_**'?"

"Because you already know just like me that he is not an ordinary hawk. He's unusually smart and will never get himself into trouble. In fact he never did but once…" he added the last words in whisper as he remembered when Rumina's guards caught Dermott while he was searching for him after _Maeve's request_.

Bryn who didn't notice all of his words just sighed and replied in _absent_ voice "Aye ….unusual."

His friend words and her tone brought him back to reality just to realize her mind-absent state. Sinbad bent towards her a little so that his face became closer to her as his eyes stared directly and deeply into her eyes while his gaze showed so much teasing and a mischievous smile was playing on his face.

"Hey, what? Stop it, ok? You know that we both –Dermott and I- share this bond since I started to take care of him. We became very, VERY close friends."

When Sinbad raised his eyebrow while restoring back his position, she sighed adding "Ok, I admit it; I love him so much that I can't now imagine my life without him. You know what I mean, right?"

At that Sinbad just smiled warmly "Aye, I know. Don't worry, he is a big birdie you know; and won't get himself into any trouble."

"I hope so, I hope so." She replied as she started to walk away to find anything to do that may keep her busy from worrying about Dermott, leaving her captain alone with his own thoughts.

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**Notes,**

Hey guys :) I know i'm awfully away and didn't updated sooner as i promised. But life was tough with me since then,,, after my final exams come the critical events in my country that still there till now, as you all know the problems in Egypt, i couldn't focus on anything,. So i'm so sorry and i hope you excuse me.

The next chapter is almost ready so i'm updating within 2 weeks isA, may be sooner ;)

**~.~.~**

For my dear reviewers whom i can't reach through DL,

_** loney,**_thanks for your lovely feedback, it affected me very much.. i'm so happy to know you liked the fiction that much :) thanks again,

_** Michodell,**_when i saw that you reviewed, i didn't believe it :) i'm thrilled you find it interesting, though it didn't reach the point i told you about. Oh adding actions through the dialogue... believe me that's have been my worry, i wanted to do this exactly but ... i guess i'm not that skillful yet :/ Though as you said being a fanfic makes its characters familiar to the fans/readers thus i don't need being much descriptive about them or the reader'd get bored as he know them already! i'm sorry i never give you a feedback about the characters before you read the prologue :( but i didn't really thought you'll take a look at my simple work, thanks so much my friend and your words are honor to me,

_** Misha,**_ yeah that was *some* dream, huh? :) it's really important for the adventure though, and Sinbad suffered a lot... i wasn't kind to him, i guess :D anyway, all those signs have significance for sure but i'm afraid we have to be more patient :/ thanks so much for your feedback :)


	4. Author's note

Dear readers,

I want to clarify few points concerning this fiction so that everything would be obvious

I fear terribly from the feeling that I'm playing with your patience! As it seemed to be a very slow action story, and I'm afraid the suspense I created being long so you'd find it boring at certain point.

My sincere apologies, I really hope it could be otherwise

thing is - as I mentioned from the start and on my profile here, also in many other occasions- that it's a long multipart fiction, so the story is quite long and its events seemed to be a little slow as I focus in the first parts on explanations, links and characters emotions, and actually the real adventure is long itself!

from the other side, actually as you know it's my very first time to write and I'm not an expert author, and in fact I wasn't planning to write a fiction, but just ideas, about my point of view of the background to the show events that was never declared but some hints and comments from Ed Naha or the cast, those hints never satisfy my thirst of curiosity about the favorite show and I guess it was the same to you too, and I think everyone of us -the fans- could imagine his own AOS world -the background that can make everything .. acceptable or linked- some wrote it in fictions and others just keep imagining, I was from the second club,

Anyway, to go to the point, I'm not an author, I tried to write my ideas and then I got some new one that if I added to them they could form some interesting adventures, that's all.

With my limited and inexperienced skills -as my first intention to make one big adventure within one story- I discovered I can't describe my thoughts in simple, shorter yet enough skillful manners! I don't have those skills so words flow,,, resulting in large sentences to describe single event!

I'm sorry, and I hope you won't lose patience with me guys, I'm trying my best,, and all in all this fiction was firstly intending to link the two seasons to each other in convenient way and give acceptable explanation to every weird incomplete end or event mentioned in the show, simply I wanted to build a perfect AOS world, added to it my version to what should have been coming next to S2.

I'm sorry if I disappointed some/all of you,

as a general plan to make things more obvious, the first part I'm working on now is considered as whole as introduction to the real adventures where preparative informations were given to reader in form of being introduced to the crew as well as the dream,

then comes part two focusing on the crew relationships and emotions (no real events) ,,, it's the shortest part and I'm actually thinking of posting it just after the first (not independently) but I'm still thinking about it.

Then third part is about Bryn past and her relationships with family and friends.

While the three parts coming after that are the REAL adventures, each part is considered as independent adventure by its own! these will be the all actions, and their real keys were presented in part one thus I can't tell or explain what each sign or something given or provided in the first part (R&R) could mean as it'll destroy the whole story and the three last parts (the adventures) would be useless by then.

All in all, the whole fiction is considered as the period of time between S2 & the supposed S3 but modified by the return of Maeve,

I hope that'd be enough for clarification, and really wish you might be patient with me,

Thanks guys for your time,

TS


	5. Ch 3 The Stranger!

**Hey guys, here is Chapter 3 as I promised :) hope you like it, I should say that it's _my favorite_ till now!**

**Anyway, I'm afraid it would take from me longer to update; but i'm working on next ch. and I may post it on 2 parts or as a whole depending on the time it'd take from me. So, yeah I may be away for a little but Promise I'll come back and update eventually.**

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**~The Stranger~**

Dermott flew high moving in sinuosity as an attempt to avoid the burning rays of the sun. It was really a very hot day, though there still was a lot of wind which wasn't improving the weather any way. Strangely it was a very hot yet strong wind which could fill the sails enough to lead the Nomad to make its way in a proper speed, as it was gliding smoothly on the water surface. But still this hot draft was unbearable as it was hitting his little body like a dozen of whips.

Dermott cursed deep inside when he felt there was no way to avoid this burning, but he couldn't help himself. He was in need to spread his wings and stretch his muscles. Not to mention that he didn't like how the discussion between his friends was heading to.

This morning Doubar seemed to be in his worst mood ever, he felt it from the first sight. Well, he couldn't blame him as he already knew how bad could be his night after a long night shift and being not able to sleep properly in this intolerable heat as well; but it's just that his tubby friend's mood would affect his too. Thus he preferred to get away for a while until his mate's mood got improved.

Before leaving, he felt Bryn's hidden annoyance of his sudden departure, something that pleased him in a way. She tried to hide it as she let the little thread -that was tied to his feet- go free, but it was well shown in her eyes. Her gaze held a mixture of emotions he couldn't miss; her worry, her fear about him getting hurt in any way,,, even jealousy… yeah he _knew_.

He was sure that she never get upset of him flying around, but it only happened when he went far away from the crew like the little times he preceded to Basra before the ship even reach the port of the old city. The little brunette got worried about him for unexplained reasons to her yet well known to him. She reminded him of the good old days, those blessed days that he still couldn't share their memories with her yet.

But his interest to get to Basra as soon as he could each time they arrived to it was deriving from his concern about his red headed sister. Yeah, every time he was preceding there he headed to Caipra's house to meet the old woman in a hope that she might have news about his twin.

Long time ago, after Maeve was washed overboard and the realization that she was safe with her master, Dermott figured out that the old sorceress might have a way to contact her husband or at least he was the one who was in touch with her in a certain regular way. So he could have some contentment about his sister as well.

And through the past year, every time Dim-Dim contacted in a way or another the crew or one of his friends, this thought was growing more inside him, why on earth wouldn't he reassure his wife if he already could reach other people ?

Dermott was dying from inquietude about his sister. In spite of knowing she was safe with Dim-Dim and he trusted the old sorcerer words, not to mention his confidence in Maeve's ability to take care of herself, he still didn't like how she was separated from him in a way he even couldn't know her news.

All these thoughts and Bryn had no idea about any of them as he kept them from her. However she felt all his anxiety, his solicitude and his yearning feelings without being able to put her hand on the reasons behind them. She tried to ask him once but he evaded from her, since then she knew he didn't want to share his secret and thoughts with anyone, thus she respected his reticence.

On the other side, he was aware about his brunette guardian thoughts towards this issue, but had no possible way enabling him to tell her the truth with frankness, at least not now. He appreciated her respect to his secrecy and relieved by her patience because if she insisted he would be forced to tell her about everything. Whereas the time of revealing the truth to her had not come yet, though she wasn't ready till this moment.

He could witness the progress she achieved through this year she spent on Nomad with the crew but he wasn't sure when exactly is the right time to put an end to her confusion. He was looking forward to this moment even more than her, but how could he confront her with the truth in such circumstances?

At first he was depending on Maeve's presence, but now that he became alone he felt he couldn't do it on his own. He was still anxious about her –not that she is not stronger now, as he knew Bryn was always that strong person you could always depend on; along with her fascinating determination it was the real seed of admiration he felt for her- but he just couldn't keep himself from worrying about her reaction after such confrontation.

That was so natural feeling of a man who deeply cared for … for _someone_.

As a result of the long time knowing and dealing with her he got enough experience to let him get inside her heart and soul not only her mind. He now became aware of her emotions without her sharing them, aware of every thought of hers without her spelling it out loud, of every word that leapt in her mouth before she pronounced it, of every reaction she intended to do before she even realized that she want to do it.

And through all of this, it was much easier now that he could admit with great relief that she had now completed her recovery at last. Also, during all the time they spent together on Nomad, he could say that they got closer to each other _again_, which pleased him greatly.

Sometimes her care was transformed a little bit to _jealousy_ in those last months. That was what relieved him further on, giving him some hope. However this closeness sometimes worried him when he became –some days- desperate of returning back to the one he used to be.

Thinking of the only one who could help him was now gone, he even didn't know where exactly she was, in the same time of having back the brunette with a lost memory that may burst back in any moment; all of these made him ponder about the great damages that could happen to Bryn and her reactions if she knew the truth.

No, she shouldn't remember her past for now, at least not all of it for her sake; and thus she should not get these feeling towards him in any possible way. Those same feelings could hurt her more than she could realize and he won't let anything hurt her again, never, even if it was himself, or his feelings … for her sake.

**~.~.~.~.~**

In that moment, and while all these thoughts mixed with his conflicting emotions fighting back between his heart and mind, Dermott realized that eventually he reached the port of squawked as he flew in the sky; his eyes were scanning the harbor surface carefully, when suddenly he received some big gulp disturbing his heart beats.

As a result he lowered down his flying level so that he almost reached the water surface, only to get back his balance in the exact right time and return back to fly highly restoring his favorite level in flight.

For seconds he couldn't put his hand on what was it exactly, but then recognized a familiar presence… very familiar! A presence that he had missed for more than a year now … It couldn't be, could it?

Is she back finally?

He squawked again joyfully in the air while wondering what would be his captain's reaction towards this wonderful surprise.

But something wrong hit his happiness as he figured out that her presence or might he say her aura he used to sense from a long distance was … too weak !

Now his heart beats returned to be heavier again as the anxiety was devouring his soul. It was when he felt he was somehow watched!

Returning his attention back to the surroundings his eyes fell on a figure standing there on the pier and staring at him. Furthermore; Dermott realized the figure was in fact for a lady and she was switching her gaze between him and something behind him.

He made a complete turn to catch what the stranger was interested in; only to find a very small and distant dot in the open sea, in which he recognized the ship he just came from.

**~.~.~.~.~**

Now that was really interesting, that lady seemed to know where he came from and was watching him for a while now, it could even be from the beginning. What made it odder that she was like waiting for him and Nomad with patience, expecting somehow their arrival. He approached her more to discover who she might be.

Standing there with what seemed to be determination shining from her grey almond eyes, she was hidden in a large dark desert cloak that enwrapped her slender body and added quite some mystery to her looks. Only a few wisps appeared from beneath the hood and, tickled by the hot air's breath, declared her possession of vivid dark brown hair framing her beautiful pale face.

It was this face which, along with her left hand that held back the cloak from detaching at her right upper chest, proved she wasn't from the eastern cities.

Her whole appearance was a mixture of beauty and mystery. The desert mantle was contrasting with her western features and it had Dermott wonder who she could be and what she might want from the crew. Close to her he perched on one of the pillars that formed the wooden wall of the pier and tried to gain her full attention. She stared at him for a moment, then smiled.

"So it's true, you're Dermott – just as I guessed."

The little hawk shifted on his spot in increasing confusion. He wished he would be able to voice his queries, but all he could do was flap his wings and give a low squawk.

Oddly enough she responded to this gesture as she seemed to read his thoughts.

"Don't you worry", she spoke calmly, "I mean you no harm. I'm just a messenger sent to captain Sinbad -your captain- from an old friend."

Dermott stared and thought, truth be said he didn't feel neither evil nor discomfort at her sight which made him calm down a little with her words.

"I came to wait for your captain to deliver him an urgent message from Caipra." She continued calmly "She wants him to give up everything for this moment once he gets on land; and to head directly to her house with his whole crew."

Now the anxiety inside him had revived again and reached its maximum. So what he felt was real, Maeve was back and very weak. Yes, he could feel his twin.

"Don't bother yourself about returning back to the ship to tell them, it's my mission; as it's also mine to tell you. Caipra told me you'll precede them to here and will head directly for her, but in case of meeting you I've to tell you can go to her now."

She was talking with a warm smile that showed her dimples. Caipra also told her that Dermott was unusual hawk who would understand all her words. Though she couldn't imagine that it'd be an absolute truth but Caipra was trustful wise woman of knowledge; and after all she –the young lady- was only a messenger so she did just as she was told.

In the other side, Dermott was now sure that something wrong got his sister and he couldn't really wait more anymore. He had to go right now, but also he wouldn't leave without making sure that Sinbad wouldn't be late for any moment once he arrived to the port. He was afraid Sinbad would miss the messenger, or wouldn't take her words seriously; however the message coming from Caipra wouldn't let that happen but instead of it would catch the young captain's attention instantly- but just in case.

He instantly searched for Bryn's power to catch and her mind to contact. Once he found them, he held on them and reflected the young lady images towards Bryn's mind with some of her words for him. That's all he could do for now.

The brown hawk flew up again in his way towards the old sorceress house, with the young stranger's gaze following him with both amazement and admiration shining in her eyes. "Caipra was right! He got the message. This birdie is really unusual."

Then she turned her attention again to the ship that was advancing now in the open sea towards the port, its features becoming now clearer than only a dot.

**~.~.~.~.~**

Back on Nomad, Bryn was in the galley registering what Firouz was counting to assess their needs of the supply that they should get from Basra market before their departure again. That was when Dermott contacted her by his usual way: sending pictures that sometimes were accompanied by some words. This time she got images of the stranger who was waiting patiently for them in the port. Getting a good view of her and her obvious interest on Nomad Bryn could hear her words too _"Don't you worry from me …." "…. I came to wait for your captain …."_

Although the few words the brunette of Nomad caught from the previous conversation weren't complete nor so clear but she got the main idea. There was a young lady waiting for them in Basra and need their help.

The young sorceress excused from Firouz and went to search for Sinbad only to find him still holding the tiller.

"Hey, how are you doing now? Feeling any better?" he smiled at her sight.

"Much better." She lied then added quickly before he caught it with his piercing blue gaze inside her soul "Dermott told me that there is someone waiting for us in the port."

"Someone … Who?"

"I have no idea, but she is a young lady. And I already had a good view of her that Dermott sent to me, so I can recognize her once we arrive."

"What does she want exactly? Some business?"

"No idea either, sorry. All I know that she is waiting for us, that's all."

Sinbad nodded "Well, I guess we won't wonder for much longer. It's less than an hour to reach the port. I already can see it from here."

Bryn just replied with a smile, while her mind drifted again to Dermott. She didn't tell Sinbad the truth that her feeling was growing worse; and that at certain point it brought her thoughts back to her feathered friend, she didn't know why. May be it's related to him in a certain way; this thought terrified her. No, it couldn't be. He was safe; he had just contacted her moments ago so he was safe.

As Sinbad got busy from her, giving orders to the other crew-mates, Bryn lost her gaze in the upcoming sight of the old city. Sinbad was right, she wouldn't wonder for longer now.

It was only a matter of minutes.

**~.~.~**

**N.B. **As you all can see here, i just introduced my first OC ... The Stranger! I hope so much that you like her!

Yup, yup she is the girl who appears in the Cover picture, between Sinbad & Caipra (,")

More about her will be revealed further on during the story events,, but she'll still till the end of this current part... just The Stranger! ;)


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